1. Field
The following description relates generally to wireless network communications, and more particularly to obtaining and utilizing policies for offload and/or flow mobility.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as, for example, voice, data, and so on. Typical wireless communication systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, . . . ). Examples of such multiple-access systems may include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, and the like. Additionally, the systems can conform to specifications such as third generation partnership project (3GPP), 3GPP long term evolution (LTE), ultra mobile broadband (UMB), evolution data optimized (EV-DO), etc.
Generally, wireless multiple-access communication systems may simultaneously support communication for multiple mobile devices. Each mobile device may communicate with one or more base stations via transmissions on forward and reverse links. The forward link (or downlink) refers to the communication link from base stations to mobile devices, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to the communication link from mobile devices to base stations. Further, communications between mobile devices and base stations may be established via single-input single-output (SISO) systems, multiple-input single-output (MISO) systems, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems, and so forth. In addition, mobile devices can communicate with other mobile devices (and/or base stations with other base stations) in peer-to-peer wireless network configurations.
In addition, devices can communicate with a wireless network using multiple network connections to increase diversity, increase data rate, provide additional functionality, and/or the like. In one example, a device can communicate with the wireless network over an LTE connection and a wireless local area network (WLAN) connection. Furthermore, the device can download policies related to utilizing the multiple network connections. In an example, one or more policies can specify parameters for using at least one of the multiple connections, such as to use WLAN for all hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) data and/or data having a transport protocol destination port of 80. The device can include logic to interpret the policies and appropriately route incoming and/or outgoing data over the specified network connection. In LTE devices having WLAN capability, these policies can be known as WLAN-offload policies since the policies define scenarios for using a WLAN connection instead of an LTE connection for certain applications, certain types of data, certain internet protocol (IP) endpoints, certain IP ports, etc. In typical LTE deployments, devices with WLAN capability download WLAN-offload policies from the network, and utilize the WLAN-offload policies in scenarios defined by parameters in the policies.